That's cool, thanks for the write-up . I don't blame the crowd, Rhyne and Tim are not big names. I didn't pay much attention to Rhyne myself when I first joined this forum. But it started to change after following him on twitter, and it was more of a curious case of character study I find him interesting, maybe a little bit weird at times. Now, I know more about him than any other player. I can probably write his biography

No problem. It wasn't very coherent but I mainly wanted to bring attention to Rhyne and Tim, it was their first ATP final ever after all. For me, Rhyne caught my attention when he played so well against Mayer in the Aussie open, I decided I wanted to learn more about him. Funny enough I turned to twitter as well, and when I learned about his down to earth personality and different, I was a fan. He's not the cookie cutter vanilla tennis player, and I really like that about him. I also love how he replies and favorites all of the fan tweets sent to him, rare among tennis players. It shows that he actually cares about his fans. Now on to his match against Meister. Already missed 2 games typing up this post. Go Rhyne!

BINGHAMTON — His preparation for this week’s Levene, Gouldin & Thompson Tennis Challenger may have been less than ideal, but Rhyne Williams managed to do just fine Tuesday at Recreation Park.

A day after playing in the doubles final at an ATP Tour event in Newport, R.I, the top-seeded Williams withstood a game effort from Nicholas Meister for a hard-fought 7-5, 7-6 (0) victory in a first-round match.

Williams will meet New Zealand’s Michael Venus in a second-round match Thursday. He’ll surely enjoy the off day after making the 8½-hour trek Monday from Newport after he and Tim Smyczek played in the doubles final of the Hall of Fame Championships earlier that day, losing to Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-7(4), 6-2, 10-5.

The match had been postponed a day due to inclement weather earlier in the tournament.

“We didn’t get in until late (Monday) night…we came out and hit around noon on Tuesday, so I didn’t get a chance to practice on these courts that much,” Williams said. “To play a match against a tough opponent like Nick, it was tough.

“It took me a little while to find a rhythm, he was serving really well. I just tried to play defense the best I could and weather the storm.”

Both players held serve in the first set until Williams managed to finally get a break when Meister couldn’t get to a well-placed drop shot, taking a 6-5 lead before serving out the first set.

In the second set, Williams got an early break and led 4-2, but Meister managed to break Williams serve to knot the score at 4. Both players held serve the rest of the way before Williams managed to reel off seven straight points to win the tiebreak and the match.

BINGHAMTON — Rhyne Williams has his sights set on the Levene, Gouldin & Thompson Tennis Challenger, but eventually he hopes to be considered one of the best tennis players in the world.

“Ultimately, I would really like to be inside the top 40 in the world,” said Williams, who earned his first singles title at the Challenger of Dallas in Feburary. “I think that’s doable. I still have a lot of time. If you look at the rankings now, the average age of the guys inside the top 100 is 29 years old. I’m 22, so I’ve got plenty of time.”

Ranked 129th, Williams has a long way to go to reach his goal. For now, Williams is the top seed in the LG&T Challenger, and on Thursday, he advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 victory over Michael Venus at Recreation Park.

Venus challenged Williams constantly, and looked in control of the match through two sets. Although Williams won the opening set, he was unable to break Venus’ serve and looked unbalanced.

“It was difficult, he’s a very good competitor,” Williams said. “After I won the first set, I figured he would have a bit of a let-up, and he definitely didn’t. I looked over and he was bouncing around, still fired up.”

In the sixth game of the third set, Williams was finally able to break Venus’ serve and take a 4-2 lead. Williams was clearly fired up after he won the game, as he pumped his fist and shouted in celebration.

“He fought hard and served really well,” Williams said. “I just tried to neutralize that however I could.”

Williams was so frustrated by Venus’ serve that he actually broke his racket in the first set and received a racket abuse warning.

“I had a lapse mentally there for a second, but it didn’t really affect me,” Williams said. “I snapped back and ended up winning that tiebreaker.”

After Williams took his 4-2 advantage in the final set, he won the next two games to move on.

If Williams is able to win Friday’s quarterfinal match against Takanyi Garanganga, he could possibly play his college roommate, Tennys Sandgren, in the semis, should he also win.

“We are best buddies,” Williams said. “We’ve played each other tons of times. We don’t like to talk about it.”

One of the times they faced off was in the 2011 NCAA men’s singles semifinals. Williams won, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, before falling in the championship game.

“It’s just not fun when you’re playing a buddy,” Williams said.

The NCAA tournament was Williams’ first taste of high-level competition. He has since played in the 2012 U.S. Open and in this year’s Australian Open and French Open. Williams said the intense matches he had in those Grand Slams have helped him take steps toward his ultimate goal.

“It’s just nice to have that experience under my belt,” Williams said “Not many people can say they’ve played in Grand Slams.”

While Williams would love to be playing in and succeeding in those big tournaments every year, he is content with taking small steps.

“I’m still a young guy, but I still have a lot of growing up to do,” Williams said. “I’m going to try to learn every day.”

In the final match of the day, top-seeded Rhyne Williams beat qualifier Takanyi Garanganga 6-3, 4-3, who retired due to an apparent leg injury.

After taking the first set, Williams had to fight against Garanganga, who had three break points with the second set knotted 2-2. However, Williams refused to be broken, keeping the lead for good.

“I’m still feeling confident on my serve which has really helped me,” Williams said. “I faced a lot of break points today and came up with some big serves so I’m thankful for that. I’m just trying to work on some ground strokes, really not feeling comfortable back there yet.”

Williams advances to face Kuznetsov. In their last meeting, Kuznetsov beat him in Savannah, Ga., on a clay court.